Funeral for Chesaning High School teen, who died in a single-vehicle crash week, to be held in Chesaning Monday

CHESANING — The funeral is today for Shelby D. Bates, 14, of Oakley, who died in a single-vehicle

View full sizeSaginaw County sheriff's officials said the car that Shelby Bates, 14, of Oakley was a passenger in suffered minor damage when it rolled in a single-vehicle crash last Wednesday. Bates died when she was ejected from the vehicle.

car crash in Chesaning Township on Wednesday when she was ejected from the back seat of 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix while on the way home from Chesaning High School, where she was a freshman.

The funeral for Bates is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. today at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1629 Brady in Chesaning, with a burial to follow at Wildwood Cemetery in Chesaning.

Katelyn Beckman, 15, a freshman at Chesaning High School, rode in the passenger seat; her boyfriend, Ethan P. Dankert, 16, of Chesaning, was driving; and Bates, the daughter of Thomas and Trena Bates, rode in the rear seat.

Saginaw County Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Randy P. Pfau, said the driver lost control while driving west on Baldwin, and when the car exited the roadway, it rolled onto its roof and spun 180 degrees, ejecting Bates from the rear window. She suffered head trauma.

“They weren’t traveling fast,” said Bob Beckman, whose granddaughter, Katelyn Beckman, was one of Bates’ best friends and is a freshman at Chesaning High School. “Snow was going across the road; it was icy underneath. They were on their way home from school, and Shelby was going to spend the night with Katelyn, my granddaughter, which they’ve done numerous times before.”

Medics pronounced Bates dead at the scene.

The front-seat passengers were hospitalized but suffered no significant injuries, Bob Beckman said.

Deb Shindorf, a clerk at D’s Party Store in Oakley, said while she didn’t personally know Bates, customers have been talking about the crash.

“It’s the biggest thing that has happened in Oakley,” population 300, she said, “and everyone is feeling it.

“It’s a sad thing when a life is cut short.”

Bob Beckman fondly recalled how Bates, his granddaughter and a third close friend would orchestrate dress-up meals in which the “inseparable” trio dressed as butlers and waiters, adorned with fake mustaches, and served Bob Beckman and his wife meals.

Other times, the threesome wrote playful skits they put on for the couple.

“She just was a great kid, funny, made everybody laugh,” Bob Beckman said. “She was just a joy to be around. She called me Grandpa Bob all the time.”

The “super-good friends” loved producing amateur movies — credits, background music and all, Bob Beckman said — and Bates, whom he called a natural talker, often became the center of attention in the off-beat skits and story lines.

“You never knew what they were going to come up with,” Bob Beckman said. “They were pretty creative.”

He said Bates’ friends are shaken by the tragedy.

“The mental thing is going to be the worst part,” he said, adding that they “just can’t believe it.”